This is just a list of issues, within the past 10 years, that Golden State Warriors fans are angry about... But I'm gonna explain why they aren't anything that anyone should be stressing about. Here are 4 grudges that Warriors fans need to let go of:

(4) Captain Jack's contract extension

Oh sure, there's lots of blame to go around for this fiasco. But why Warriors fans hate on Stephen Jackson, of all people, is beyond me. First and foremost, let's understand that Jackson acted as his own agent and Team President Robert Rowell - desperate to drive out Chris Mullin - followed suit and negotiated directly with Stephen Jackson. The result was a horrid overpayment; franchise money for a glorified role player. But when it's all said and done, Jackson was vilified by a management office that he swindled and fans ate it up. Nobody can claim that they wouldn't have attempted to get as much cash as Jackson did and, to his credit, Captain Jack tried to play like a front-line, star player after his pay day. Unfortunately, reality set in and Warriors fans grew tired of watching Jackson score 22 points on 25 shots a game, but (if nothing else) you have to admit that he tried. I can't incriminate Warriors fans for disliking Stephen Jackson for a myriad of other (valid) reasons, but I do not understand how fans can continuously harp on Jackson for his contract extension.

(3) Joe Lacob "guaranteeing" a playoff birth in 2012

This is an easy one to squash and it addresses every short-sighted moron that boo'd on Chris Mullin night: would you rather have an owner that told you he had no playoff aspirations before the season? [/argument]

Joe Lacob made a claim that EVERY new owner in any sport will make: "I have arrived and our team is on the way up." People who whine about Lacob for "guaranteeing" an all-star and a playoff birth are like creationists to the vast majority of Christians: you're making the rest of us look dumb by taking things too literally.

(2) Chris Mullin's front office track record

A popular hindsight bias, it's become generally accepted that Chris Mullin was a poor GM. Nothing could be further from the truth. Mullin's coup of stealing Baron Davis from the Hornets gave Warriors fans a legit star to cheer about for the first time since Latrell Sprewell skipped town. Needled and hen-pecked for overpaying role players such as Derek Fisher, Jason Richardson, and Mike Dunleavy, Mullin spent what he had to in order to try and bring/build talent into the organization (a strategy not shared by the owner or team president during Mully's temulchuous tenure). Mullin didn't just legitimize the Warriors star player; he also did it to a musical-chair coaching staff (bringing in Don Nelson), not to mention the rest of the Warriors playoff roster; drafting Monta Ellis, Mickael Pietrus, Andris Biedrins, discovering gems like Matt Barnes, CJ Watson, Kelenna Azuibuke, and trading for Stephen Jackson and Al Harrington. Had Mullin not leaked so many vetoed deals from Robert Rowell (including a more modest Baron Davis extension and a potential Mike Miller swap for a trade exception), he may very well still have been GM today. Warriors fans can thank Chris Mullin for the only playoff appearance they've received in 20 years.

(1) Trading Jason Richardson for the draft rights to Brandan Wright

Quite honestly, the most overblown and over dramatized "bad trade" in Warrior history. As it involved an established scoring guard being dealt away by a Don Nelson team in exchange for an unproven big with potential, this trade drew comparisons to the Mitch Richmond trade of the early 90's. Fortunately for Warriors fans, that is where the comparisons end. For while Richmond was a cheap commodity who went on to play in 6 All-Star Games, Richardson was beginning the early stages of a 6-year, $70 million contract - culminating in a $14.5 million 2010 season - that he (undoubtably) did not live up to. Since being traded from the Warriors, Richardson is averaging 16.6 PPG at 44% from the field (and if you subtract his 2 booming seasons in Charlotte, his PPG average dips to a little over 14 points). Warriors fans will always love Jason Richardson, but this trade was far from as bad as many make it out to be... And hearing some fans try and argue that it's among the worst trades in Warrior history is laughable.

(4)From HoopsHype."The Warriors really thought they could bring Stephen Jackson back to Oracle Arena until he asked Larry Riley for a contract extension immediately following the Monta Ellis-Andrew Bogut trade."That sums it.(3) Talk is cheap. And that goes for MJ also.(2) I am sick and tired of this Mullin bitching. I explained this many times. When a player asks more money than he deservers you have 2 options. Not give him the money and lose him for nothing, or Pay him and trade him for something. All the players that Mullin is accused of overpaying where traded when the first opportunity came. Not to mention that this means those contracts where not so bad after all.(1) It is easy to be a wise man looking back.

All those grudges will go away by next season if Warriors make it to the playoffs. The ownership has excuses ready built in like new owners, lockout compacted season, new coach, and injuries. It going to be their third full season and there should be major progress with so much optimism from front office and fans about this team getting better. I don't think there should be any excuses for next season.

Oh no, I'm not flip-flipping my stance in any way when it came to that trade. I was (seemingly) on an island back when this trade went down; everyone was hot off the "We Believe" success and the over-valuing of Jason Richardson in this forum was embarrassing from Day 1. I also argued (back in '07) that Richardson's massive leg injury seemed to rob him of his explosiveness near the basket and he seemed to be turning into more of a jump-shooter and if that was the case (which, in hindsight, it was) than we were paying far too much money for "a Michael Finley clone" (which, again, is a reference to one of my posts in 2007).

I also argued the potential of Brandan Wright and our desperate need for a true, offensive big man (Harrington was an oversized wing and Biedrins was invisible in the post).

In hindsight... Sure, Brandan Wright didn't pan out. But this outcry from the Dubs fans about what robbery this was is still (despite how things with BW turned out) vastly exaggerated. Richardson was making over $10 million per, we had Monta Ellis ready to start, we needed a post-scorer and another big defender, AND Charlotte pulled the trigger with a trade exception so we didn't even take back a bad contract.

To say that trade is "among the worst in Warrior history" is wildly overrated... And, to address your bullet point on that issue, this is a position I've held since we pulled that deal off. In my opinion, trading Wright and Gadz for Troy Murphy's expiring contract was an identical deal to the draft day one involving JRich: at the end of the day, it was a salary dump for a player (or players) who weren't make-or-break guys to begin with.

#5 -- David Lee contract. 20 and 10 player, Team USA, allstar, lockerroom leader, etc. Still hear about the contract despite having a very good season. there's worse contracts out there by far. Two words: Elton Brand.

(1) BW for J Rich. Still a horrible trade. More so by how things went down. If it were a precursor to a bigger trade -- great trade. But W's let the trade exception expire with nothing to show for it. And don't forget this forced the Warriors into Monta ball for several years... from that point forward the backcourt had to account for Monta being undersized and playing no D. So roster building was forced to either have a Baron Davis big point guard or be undersized in the backcourt. Nice thing about J Rich was he gave everything Monta did and could also hold his position on D. Against the trade then and now... not even cuz I was much of a J Rich fan, but because we could have combined Harrington with Monta OR J rich for a legit PF. Instead we wound up with some raw unproven skinny kid nowhere near ready to contribute. Additionally, trading a proven player like J Rich - who endured the bad years and then gets traded as soon as they made the playoffs -- left a bad taste in everyone's mouth and showed the rest of the team how disloyal the franchise was. Coulda got more for him.

rockyBeli wrote:#5 -- David Lee contract. 20 and 10 player, Team USA, allstar, lockerroom leader, etc. Still hear about the contract despite having a very good season. there's worse contracts out there by far. Two words: Elton Brand.

(1) BW for J Rich. Still a horrible trade. More so by how things went down. If it were a precursor to a bigger trade -- great trade. But W's let the trade exception expire with nothing to show for it. And don't forget this forced the Warriors into Monta ball for several years... from that point forward the backcourt had to account for Monta being undersized and playing no D. So roster building was forced to either have a Baron Davis big point guard or be undersized in the backcourt. Nice thing about J Rich was he gave everything Monta did and could also hold his position on D. Against the trade then and now... not even cuz I was much of a J Rich fan, but because we could have combined Harrington with Monta OR J rich for a legit PF. Instead we wound up with some raw unproven skinny kid nowhere near ready to contribute. Additionally, trading a proven player like J Rich - who endured the bad years and then gets traded as soon as they made the playoffs -- left a bad taste in everyone's mouth and showed the rest of the team how disloyal the franchise was. Coulda got more for him.

Sweet Jesus that was well said.

I have said before since that trade happened that it was one of the worst in this franchise's history. That's my opinion and others believe the same. In trading JRich though, yea, the FO were inept and a real good one would have traded JRich and a future 1st rounder or another player that was on the team with him back then for a great PF, as Harrington just wasn't a true PF. Not surprised though, this is the Warriors franchise.

rockyBeli wrote:#5 -- David Lee contract. 20 and 10 player, Team USA, allstar, lockerroom leader, etc. Still hear about the contract despite having a very good season. there's worse contracts out there by far. Two words: Elton Brand.

(1) BW for J Rich. Still a horrible trade. More so by how things went down. If it were a precursor to a bigger trade -- great trade. But W's let the trade exception expire with nothing to show for it. And don't forget this forced the Warriors into Monta ball for several years... from that point forward the backcourt had to account for Monta being undersized and playing no D. So roster building was forced to either have a Baron Davis big point guard or be undersized in the backcourt. Nice thing about J Rich was he gave everything Monta did and could also hold his position on D. Against the trade then and now... not even cuz I was much of a J Rich fan, but because we could have combined Harrington with Monta OR J rich for a legit PF. Instead we wound up with some raw unproven skinny kid nowhere near ready to contribute. Additionally, trading a proven player like J Rich - who endured the bad years and then gets traded as soon as they made the playoffs -- left a bad taste in everyone's mouth and showed the rest of the team how disloyal the franchise was. Coulda got more for him.

Sweet Jesus that was well said.

I have said before since that trade happened that it was one of the worst in this franchise's history. That's my opinion and others believe the same. In trading JRich though, yea, the FO were inept and a real good one would have traded JRich and a future 1st rounder or another player that was on the team with him back then for a great PF, as Harrington just wasn't a true PF. Not surprised though, this is the Warriors franchise.

You guys both make good points, but consider what just happened:

1, Richardson was coming off a microfracture surgery and looking uncharacteristically immobile.

2, He was making over $9 million with heavy incremental increases set for the next 4 years (until he reached $14.5 million in 2010).

3, Monta Ellis was averaging 18 points in JRich's place and the majority of this place wanted to see what he could do with more minutes cause (at around 50% from the floor) he was much more efficient than Richardson.

4, the team had JUST aqcuired Stephen Jackson - who played the same SG/SF spot at Richardson, but was a far better passer, defender, and (at the time) 3-point shooter.

5, the team just got BOUNCED from the postseason after Jerry Sloan bodied them up and exposed their lack of size.

The team NEEDED a big man. And dealing from a position of depth, you had to surrender either Jackson (who was the 2nd best player after BD), Ellis (the youngest, most efficient, AND cheapest), or Richardson... who just came off a knee surgery and was gonna be one of the 3 highest paid players.

Disregarding the bigger picture move going on (the Warriors attempting to create a package for Minnesota to get KG), that was the right trade to make from a basketball standpoint. Disregarding the exceptions (like Jordan, Kobe, Wade, etc), it green lit every rule:

- If you can trade a big contract for a small one, you do it.- If you can get a 7-footer for a shooting guard, you do it.- If you can get a guy with 20 years left for a guy with 10 years left, you do it.

OF COURSE, with hindsight bias, knowing that Wright would never become the lottery pick he was taken as, you may not pull the trigger on that deal today. But to act as though this trade is among the worst in Warrior history? Jason Richardson? A career-43% shooter?? I just don't agree. To me, you do WHATEVER you can to rid yourself of Jason Richardson making over $10 mill a year for 4 years. People here could stand Maggette (a JRich doppelgänger) for making similar money, they HATED Jamal Crawford for his paycheck, and even allllll throughout this and last year, David Lee is taking flack for making so much cash. Why the hell does JRich get a free pass?

32 i think you misunderstood me. I blame my bad English for this. What i meant to say is that it is really easy to judge past trades and comment about how good or bad they where when you already now how things developed afterwards. The difficult thing is to evaluate a decision made considering the known facts at the time. So i wasn't judging you, but all those who judge by the result. The wise man. Oh and to answer your last question: He was a good dunker and showman in a team whose fans has long forgot the importance of competing, of playing hard defence until you bleed that uniform and doing anything in your power to win. It was show-time for much too long for us and we didn't had no Magic.

I have said before since that trade happened that it was one of the worst in this franchise's history. That's my opinion and others believe the same. In trading JRich though, yea, the FO were inept and a real good one would have traded JRich and a future 1st rounder or another player that was on the team with him back then for a great PF, as Harrington just wasn't a true PF. Not surprised though, this is the Warriors franchise.

thanks Yeah exactly, any other team would've gotten a better deal or used trade exception at the very least.

32 wrote:

migya wrote:

rockyBeli wrote:#5 -- David Lee contract. 20 and 10 player, Team USA, allstar, lockerroom leader, etc. Still hear about the contract despite having a very good season. there's worse contracts out there by far. Two words: Elton Brand.

(1) BW for J Rich. Still a horrible trade. More so by how things went down. If it were a precursor to a bigger trade -- great trade. But W's let the trade exception expire with nothing to show for it. And don't forget this forced the Warriors into Monta ball for several years... from that point forward the backcourt had to account for Monta being undersized and playing no D. So roster building was forced to either have a Baron Davis big point guard or be undersized in the backcourt. Nice thing about J Rich was he gave everything Monta did and could also hold his position on D. Against the trade then and now... not even cuz I was much of a J Rich fan, but because we could have combined Harrington with Monta OR J rich for a legit PF. Instead we wound up with some raw unproven skinny kid nowhere near ready to contribute. Additionally, trading a proven player like J Rich - who endured the bad years and then gets traded as soon as they made the playoffs -- left a bad taste in everyone's mouth and showed the rest of the team how disloyal the franchise was. Coulda got more for him.

Sweet Jesus that was well said.

I have said before since that trade happened that it was one of the worst in this franchise's history. That's my opinion and others believe the same. In trading JRich though, yea, the FO were inept and a real good one would have traded JRich and a future 1st rounder or another player that was on the team with him back then for a great PF, as Harrington just wasn't a true PF. Not surprised though, this is the Warriors franchise.

You guys both make good points, but consider what just happened:

1, Richardson was coming off a microfracture surgery and looking uncharacteristically immobile.

2, He was making over $9 million with heavy incremental increases set for the next 4 years (until he reached $14.5 million in 2010).

3, Monta Ellis was averaging 18 points in JRich's place and the majority of this place wanted to see what he could do with more minutes cause (at around 50% from the floor) he was much more efficient than Richardson.

4, the team had JUST aqcuired Stephen Jackson - who played the same SG/SF spot at Richardson, but was a far better passer, defender, and (at the time) 3-point shooter.

5, the team just got BOUNCED from the postseason after Jerry Sloan bodied them up and exposed their lack of size.

The team NEEDED a big man. And dealing from a position of depth, you had to surrender either Jackson (who was the 2nd best player after BD), Ellis (the youngest, most efficient, AND cheapest), or Richardson... who just came off a knee surgery and was gonna be one of the 3 highest paid players.

Disregarding the bigger picture move going on (the Warriors attempting to create a package for Minnesota to get KG), that was the right trade to make from a basketball standpoint. Disregarding the exceptions (like Jordan, Kobe, Wade, etc), it green lit every rule:

- If you can trade a big contract for a small one, you do it.- If you can get a 7-footer for a shooting guard, you do it.- If you can get a guy with 20 years left for a guy with 10 years left, you do it.

OF COURSE, with hindsight bias, knowing that Wright would never become the lottery pick he was taken as, you may not pull the trigger on that deal today. But to act as though this trade is among the worst in Warrior history? Jason Richardson? A career-43% shooter?? I just don't agree. To me, you do WHATEVER you can to rid yourself of Jason Richardson making over $10 mill a year for 4 years. People here could stand Maggette (a JRich doppelgänger) for making similar money, they HATED Jamal Crawford for his paycheck, and even allllll throughout this and last year, David Lee is taking flack for making so much cash. Why the hell does JRich get a free pass?

I think D Lee and J Rich should get more of a free pass because they actually contributed to the team and had enough production to somewhat justify their contracts. J Crawford, Mags, and yes even Monta Ellis had too many deficiencies (mainly one-dimensional + blackholes) to justify their contracts and that they weren't pieces of the solution or players you wanted to build around.

As for the other players, I think Barnes was coming off the bench so S Jax was the starting SF not SG, SF is his natural position. Sure if you looked at the entire big picture of the contracts, etc, it'd made sense to move J Rich. But that was not the only option out there. It was too much of a risk to trade a commodity for a raw project player who added nothing to the team.

In a way, reminds me of the Perkins for Jeff Green trade Danny Ainge made for the Celtics. Yeah, big contract, made sense for the future I guess... but if you are a team trying to win-now, you keep Perkins because you don't fix what isn't broken. The Warriors had just made the playoffs, made it the 2nd round.... that means it's not broken when it comes to the Warriors because it's "working fine" if you're making the playoffs for the first time in 13 yrs. Championship could wait, at least be competitive to attract talent, FA's, etc.

You can make the case for J Rich to be traded, but to be traded for such a risky and admittedly raw project player or for the slight chance of nabbing KG, was foolish, especially when there were much better options available. Of course most of the aftermath of the trade could've been better with a more competent owner / FO / decision makers. But that still doesn't excuse it from being a trade that was on the low end of good trade possibilities.

rockyBeli wrote:#5 -- David Lee contract. 20 and 10 player, Team USA, allstar, lockerroom leader, etc. Still hear about the contract despite having a very good season. there's worse contracts out there by far. Two words: Elton Brand.

(1) BW for J Rich. Still a horrible trade. More so by how things went down. If it were a precursor to a bigger trade -- great trade. But W's let the trade exception expire with nothing to show for it. And don't forget this forced the Warriors into Monta ball for several years... from that point forward the backcourt had to account for Monta being undersized and playing no D. So roster building was forced to either have a Baron Davis big point guard or be undersized in the backcourt. Nice thing about J Rich was he gave everything Monta did and could also hold his position on D. Against the trade then and now... not even cuz I was much of a J Rich fan, but because we could have combined Harrington with Monta OR J rich for a legit PF. Instead we wound up with some raw unproven skinny kid nowhere near ready to contribute. Additionally, trading a proven player like J Rich - who endured the bad years and then gets traded as soon as they made the playoffs -- left a bad taste in everyone's mouth and showed the rest of the team how disloyal the franchise was. Coulda got more for him.

Sweet Jesus that was well said.

I have said before since that trade happened that it was one of the worst in this franchise's history. That's my opinion and others believe the same. In trading JRich though, yea, the FO were inept and a real good one would have traded JRich and a future 1st rounder or another player that was on the team with him back then for a great PF, as Harrington just wasn't a true PF. Not surprised though, this is the Warriors franchise.

You guys both make good points, but consider what just happened:

1, Richardson was coming off a microfracture surgery and looking uncharacteristically immobile.

2, He was making over $9 million with heavy incremental increases set for the next 4 years (until he reached $14.5 million in 2010).

3, Monta Ellis was averaging 18 points in JRich's place and the majority of this place wanted to see what he could do with more minutes cause (at around 50% from the floor) he was much more efficient than Richardson.

4, the team had JUST aqcuired Stephen Jackson - who played the same SG/SF spot at Richardson, but was a far better passer, defender, and (at the time) 3-point shooter.

5, the team just got BOUNCED from the postseason after Jerry Sloan bodied them up and exposed their lack of size.

The team NEEDED a big man. And dealing from a position of depth, you had to surrender either Jackson (who was the 2nd best player after BD), Ellis (the youngest, most efficient, AND cheapest), or Richardson... who just came off a knee surgery and was gonna be one of the 3 highest paid players.

Disregarding the bigger picture move going on (the Warriors attempting to create a package for Minnesota to get KG), that was the right trade to make from a basketball standpoint. Disregarding the exceptions (like Jordan, Kobe, Wade, etc), it green lit every rule:

- If you can trade a big contract for a small one, you do it.- If you can get a 7-footer for a shooting guard, you do it.- If you can get a guy with 20 years left for a guy with 10 years left, you do it.

OF COURSE, with hindsight bias, knowing that Wright would never become the lottery pick he was taken as, you may not pull the trigger on that deal today. But to act as though this trade is among the worst in Warrior history? Jason Richardson? A career-43% shooter?? I just don't agree. To me, you do WHATEVER you can to rid yourself of Jason Richardson making over $10 mill a year for 4 years. People here could stand Maggette (a JRich doppelgänger) for making similar money, they HATED Jamal Crawford for his paycheck, and even allllll throughout this and last year, David Lee is taking flack for making so much cash. Why the hell does JRich get a free pass?

I just don't see it that way. I mean, yea, BWright was a lottery pick 6'10 PF that was athletic and looked like he had quite a fair bit of potential. That usually means such a trade would end up real good a few years later, you would have to wait ofcourse. Thing is, BWright not only had major weaknesses, being very thin and physically weak and having offensive deficiencies, but JRich was one of the best SGs in the ba. If BWright was going to come in and start at PF, without a PF in Harrington already starting, then it would be more understandable that trade, though almost certain BWright would have done an awful job, not being ready at all.

JRich was worth far more than that. I don't see that situation like the Richmond for Owens trade. That Richmond for Owens trade I condone, actually, it was a nobrainer to me at that time. Owens started straight away, was ready, providing in most of the weak areas the team needed help in, especially rebounding and size. BWright was none of that. Most of us here also agree that Monta was always better as a 6th man, which is what he was before JRich was traded. Had that trade of JRich not happened, the FO would have traded Harrington and/or SJack in a package of some sort for a proper PF. Trading for a proven nba player at least compared to a draft pick is usually much more secure. The whole trade just didn't make sese and had panic shown all over it.

Also, it's worth noting that Richardson's money was parlayed into contract extensions for both Ellis and Andris Biedrins. Using hindsight bias, we probably wouldn't want to give Biedrins that money, but at the time everyone believed we found a center and we didn't wanna let him go for nothing.

I believe that given those circumstances, the salary dump was wise. After the playoffs, people were willing to build statues to BD and SJax, Harrington was our only talented big, and everyone else (besides Richardson) was getting paid peasant's wages. To me, JRich was the most replaceable guy (production-wise). Ellis had his scoring, Jackson had his fire.

Regardless of how Brandan Wright turned out or what became of the salary exception, I believe it was the right move to make in order to sustain a winning culture here. We Believe had been exposed by Jerry Sloan, we needed to get bigger and I applaud Mullin for taking a swing at it.

Yeah, but in the end, he missed with that swing...completely. You don't swing like that, if you're not sure you will get something in return. Richardson wasn't that replaceable as you say, which was obvious by how our team looked like without him. He took Brandan Wright, who was unproven player, and he sent a proven one. We are now talking on another topic about getting Iggy for some unproven players, draft picks etc, and you said there's no way they would go for that, but here you are applauding Mullin for doing that years ago.

It was a bad deal, no matter how you take it. It wasn't a complete disaster, we dealt with it, but still, it was bad. If he got some other big, with some proven NBA years behind him, then nobody could say anything about it. Even if that guy regressed in Golden State...at least there would be some value that everyone saw in that guy prior to his trade for J-Rich.

This new ownership has got to change the culture of this franchise and obviouls that means not making such awful moves as that one. So far they've done well with the Monta for Bogut deal. Interesting to see how that pans out starting next season, but the move itself looks real good.

Guybrush wrote:We are now talking on another topic about getting Iggy for some unproven players, draft picks etc, and you said there's no way they would go for that, but here you are applauding Mullin for doing that years ago.

you sly devil, you caught me playing both sides haha. Well done!

But come on Guybrush... You really think the Warriors should have just stood pat with what they had? After Utah exposed them as COMPLETELY vulnerable to post isolation and EXTREMELY sorry at switching off the pick and roll?

And you think a lottery pick big man with a $10 million trade exception wasn't good dowry for a guy who very well was going to be an expensive 6th man?

(I'm not saying they used the exception - or Wright - properly, but those assets for a one-dimensional scorer on a crowded team of offensive guns... That's not a good deal to you?)

migya wrote:This new ownership has got to change the culture of this franchise and obviouls that means not making such awful moves as that one. So far they've done well with the Monta for Bogut deal. Interesting to see how that pans out starting next season, but the move itself looks real good.

Lol Cohan was such a -1000000 owner that the only requirement for the new owner to be better was simply to have a brain.

Literally, me and you could've made better basketball decisions than Cohan and Co. I'm 100% confident of that, because the way this team was ran for so long was worse than Joe shmo fan off the street. At least Jo Shmo fan wanted to win! That's more than Cohan could say. Selling the team truly was the turning of the tide because finally we got someone in there who's going to at least put some thought into making logical basketball decisions, and isn't all about the $$, and actually wants to win. Strange. A normal owner? What a concept lol